This gathering is meant to heal election trauma and to inspire. Stop by on your way to work, or during your break. Drop in to share your thoughts. Local organizations will offer their ideas for we how we can ensure that Democracy does not become a footnote. Hear ideas for working together to counter the looming agenda.

If you cannot join us, you can turn off your TV on Inauguration Day. Don’t watch “The New Celebrity Apprentice” on NBC, and boycott all other Trump-related companies.

PoliticsComments Off on Why are the LD 42 Democratic Candidates Hiding Their Signs?

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In response to a comment from a reader of this blog regarding the lack of yard signs and the small size of the few he had seen, two of the candidates told us:

“We need more one to one forums on real issues that affect our daily lives. Voters are smart and can judge the best candidates. This also allows scrutiny of the past performance or lack thereof of incumbents.”

More grass roots support (dollars) could help them display more signs. Better yet, attend rallies and forums where you can hear all the candidates and judge for yourselves; these candidates, along with Seth Fleetwood, candidate for State Senate, want to see government working for Whatcom County. Best of all, exercise your hard-fought right: cast your vote in November. rah

As publicized, three of the Birch Bay Democrat PCO’s, Sunny Brown, Pat Jerns and Ruth Higgins, organized a “meet and greet” for Suzan DelBene, the First Congressional District candidate, Sunday, the 28th.

My tasks were to register participants at the door of Via Birch Bay Cafe and Bistro, and to keep free a parking space for the candidate’s vehicle. In addition to one space I had two-thirds of another where a motor cycle was parked. That made enough room for a limo, but what if she had a retinue with two or three cars?

Shortly after one o’clock Sunny and I were startled to look up and see the candidate walking to the door with one assistant. Smiling, more relaxed than most participants.

I waited ’till one thirty to go upstairs to find Ms. DelBene still talking with small groups of people a stranger might assume were old friends.

Campaigners are coached to tell “your story” that will gain emotional appeal from voters. If you know anything about Suzan DelBene, it is that she is rich. That she held management positions with Microsoft and a couple of successful tech start-ups; that her husband is a division president at MSFT and they live in a multimillion dollar house on Lake Washington.

So here’s DelBene’s story: When she was in high school her father, an airline pilot lost his job, and the family moved around as he sought work. She got through college on scholarships, grants and work-study programs. In her first year out of school she was able to take her family into her home. She knows what it’s like for people are suffering now. Here she is in a simple black sweater and slacks that she might have bought at Target. Empathy!

And it gets better when she asks for questions. To a long list she spontaneously renders the progressive’s perfect answers. Asked about the proposed coal pier and more coal trains–“the question that is asked most up this way”–DelBene said she is waiting for answers from the scoping process and environmental impact study, and then went on to enumerate all the issues involved–mostly negative.

When she put her competitor, John Koster, away with, “I believe in science,” the 50 people there broke into applause.

For me the most interesting answer was to the question, “How can you, as a new Congresswoman, expect to make a difference in a body with 435 partisans?” Her answer: Information can be powerful. If one knows a subject she will be sought out even if one’s office is in the basement of the Capitol. “When John Koster voted against an appropriations bill five times in six, he said it was because he hadn’t had time to read the bills–you don’t want to employ someone like that to be your representative.”

Via, the view of the Bay and the people at the meeting who came from Blaine and Custer and elsewhere were just as attractive as the candidate. It is satisfying for our community to make such a good impression on someone whose base is Bellevue.

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Standing by the door, I found that as many people were coming to Via to eat as came to meet DelBene. After Suzan left, Ruth and I stayed to split a small salad and eat two appetizers–Steamed Mussles and Seafood Mitkof. When I asked Google about the latter, up came Via Birch Bay and explained it is a seafood saute in a brandy cream finished with a toasted smoked Gouda. With this meal, we drank a nice Pinot Grigio. Via Birch Bay Bar and Bistro is a keeper!